(Being a mechanic, Bob Hagin considers all vehicles simply a
collection of nuts, bolts and other parts. Matt Hagin agrees, but says
that in cars like the 2000 Mercedes CL500, the nuts, bolts and other
parts are much nicer than in most other cars.)

BOB - Mercedes-Benz has a long history of making "personal" cars for
working millionaires and other affluent members of society who like to
drive. Forty-five years ago, John Algie, a friend of long standing,
owned and operated a '37 540K Cabriolet and I've been impressed since
then with large Mercedes' of every era. John's car was supercharged and
weighed well over 5000 pounds, but its performance was impressive.

MATT - Although Mercedes doesn't have a corner on the ultra-luxury
coupe market, it has a contender in it 2000 CL500. Although it's a
production line-vehicle and not custom-built to order, it's obviously
developed on a cost-is-no-object premise. And although it's not as big
or as heavy as your friend's pre-war 540K, the CL500 still weighs in at
over 4100 pounds. At that, it's more than 500 pounds lighter than its
predecessor by virtue of a "diet" that includes lots of new aluminum,
magnesium and composite-material parts. It's a couple of inches shorter
than the "old" version and a little narrower, too.

BOB - The "C" in its model designation stands for coupe and the
CL500 is really the two-door version of the Mercedes S500 four-door
sedan that came out in the middle of '99. Most of the running gear is
pretty much the same, but the styling is very different. The coupe has
quad headlights and a more streamlined profile, and its drag coefficient
is only .28. It's powered by a revised 5.0 liter V8 that uses one
overhead cam on each bank and three valves per cylinder. It was part of
the weight-reduction program instigated by Mercedes engineers, so the
head, block and sump are all aluminum. It puts out 302 docile horses and
has a very impressive torque rating of 339 pound/feet. That torque is
delivered on a pretty flat curve from 2700 to 4250 RPM and although that
makes the CL500 a pretty strong puller, I don't think many of them will
be used to tote boat or vacation trailers.

MATT - That V8 is bolted to a five-speed automatic transmission that
has the added advantage of being able to be operated almost like a
stick-shift. The driver can shift it up and down through the gears
progressively. But the most impressive thing about the new CL500 is its
sophisticated interrelated suspension system. It uses modified
MacPherson struts on each corner and on top of each of them is a small
electrohydraulic pump that is interconnected to a computer and more than
a dozen sensors located throughout the chassis. When the car is driven
through a turn and begins to lean, the sensors pick up the changes in
attitude and pump up the shocks that are being compressed. It all
happens in milliseconds and it reduces roll by almost 70 percent over
last year's model. The driver can also increase the roll resistance by
up to 95 percent by flipping a dash-mounted switch.

BOB - This Mercedes has other trick stuff to keep the driver out of
trouble, too. An electronic stabilizer applies any one of the four
brakes if the systems senses that the car is going into an understeer or
and oversteer situation. The application of the inside rear brake
corrects understeer or "push," while force applied to the outside front
brake corrects an oversteer situation when the rear end starts to come
around. And the electronic stabilizer works during acceleration, braking
or coasting and on all types of road surfaces. Added to this is the
usual anti-lock brakes and a traction control systems that apply the
rear brakes and throttles back on the engine if the driver get
overzealous on wet or icy pavement. With all those safety features, it
would be hard to do anything wrong when you're driving this car.
According to the press kit on the car, Mercedes has a V12 version in the
works that puts out another 100 horsepower and the only exterior
difference will be a small "V12" emblem on each front fender.

MATT - I think I'd want a more ostentatious public display if I was
going to spend that kind of money on a daily-driver, Dad.